“When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed stands here before the LORD.” But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”” (1Sam 16:6-7NIV)
Why did God tell Samuel that He had rejected Eliab, Jesse’s first son, when he wanted to anoint him as king over Israel? We are not told in plain terms in the account. We are just told that even though his physical appearance and height were okay, they were not the qualities God was looking for in the man that He wanted to choose as king over Israel.
What qualities, then, was God looking for? Qualities of the heart! As we see in our opening text, God told Samuel that it was the heart of the person that He would choose as king that He was really concerned about and not the person’s outward appearance. Yes, it is natural for us, human beings, to fix our eyes on what we can see in people, when we are making decisions about them. And that is because unless God gives us revelations about what is going on inside them, we cannot know it.
But what is going on in people’s hearts is what really determines how they will ultimately turn out. So, if we make decisions about them only on the basis of the outward things we see about them, we may be wrong. And we are often wrong. But if we make decisions about them based on what is hidden in their hearts, we can never be wrong.
Now that is where God is different from us and, of course, greater than us. He makes His decisions about us all the time on the basis of what is hidden in our hearts and not on the basis of our outward appearance or disposition. Therefore, He is all the time right about us.
In any case, the point we are making is that God rejected Eliab as king over Israel because something was wrong with his heart. Mind you, the fact that He rejected this man shows that He had first considered him. But something within him made Him reject him. And what could that thing be?
As I said before, we are not told in plain terms in the account. But we do know from the bible that when Goliath came threatening the armies of Israel and David, Eliab’s youngest brother, began to ask questions about what the king would do for any man that killed this giant, Eliab got mad at him. He was so mad at him that he referred to him as proud and wicked. (Cf. 1Sam 17:26-28)
But was David indeed proud and wicked? The young man was simply concerned about the honour of God and of the nation of Israel. And that was why he wanted to know what would be done for the person that handled Goliath. But Eliab would not even allow him to talk. He just wanted him to shut up and get out of the camp.
What does that show us? Well, it shows us something about the inner life of Eliab. It shows us that he was an intolerant person, someone that would not be willing to listen to those under him and learn from them. It also shows us that he was someone that was lacking in ability to recognise talents and abilities.
David was his blood brother, a brother that grew up under his watch. Yet he could not see the warrior and leader in him. All he could see was an overpampered and braggadocios boy. How, then, would he, as king, be able to harness the human resources of an entire nation and make the most of them, if he could not recognise and harness the human resources in his father’s household?
Well, God may have other reasons for rejecting Eliab. But the points I shared above are the only things we can readily place our fingers on in the bible about the man’s character. And as far as I am concerned, they are enough points to disqualify anyone from being king over God’s people.
Now remember that pride, disobedience and excuses were the things that made God reject Saul as king. So, sometimes, those things that we do not consider as serious may just be what will disqualify us for certain positions of usefulness or advantage that God may want to put us in life. That is why we must not make any excuse for any wrong attitude we have in life. Instead, we must take advantage of the grace of God to destroy it. Otherwise, it may be the difference between where we are and where God wants us to be in life.
Cheers!
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